Jean-Guihen Queyras

cello

Jean-Guihen Queyras enjoys an enviable reputation as a musician of exceptional versatility and integrity, and is in great demand both as a soloist with international orchestras and conductors, and as a chamber musician and solo performer.

He has performed with many of the world’s great orchestras including the Philharmonia, Orchestre de Paris, NHK and Tokyo symphonies, Rotterdam and Netherlands philharmonics, Tonhalle Zurich, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Budapest Festival Orchestra and Orchestre de la Suisse-Romande, under the baton of conductors such as Franz Brüggen, Günther Herbig, Ivan Fischer, Philippe Herreweghe, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jiri Belohlavek, Olivier Knussen and Sir Roger Norrington. Queyras is a regular soloist with several early music ensembles such as Freiburger Barockorchester and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. His regular chamber music partners include the pianists Alexandre Tharaud and Alexander Melnikov and the violinist Isabelle Faust. He is a member of the Arcanto Quartet with Tabea Zimmermann, Antje Weithaas and Daniel Sepec, and also performs with Zarb specialists Kevyan and Bijan Chemirani.

Queyras is an enthusiastic exponent of contemporary music and is committed to expanding the repertoire boundaries of his instrument. He regularly collaborates with composers such as Bruno Mantovani, Jörg Widmann and Pierre Boulez, and has commissioned Thomas Larcher to compose a piece for solo cello and string orchestra which will be premiered in 2016. In addition to premiering Michael Jarrel’s concerto, he has premiered the concerto of Johannes-Maria Staud at the Konzerthaus Berlin and the Musikverein Wien in 2010, subsequently also performing it at the Salzburg Festival.

Queyras plays a 1696 cello made by Gioffredo Cappa, on loan from Mécénat Musical Société Générale. He is a professor at the Musikhochschule Freiburg.